1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a flotation barrier or boom, and, more particularly, to an improved contamination control barrier or boom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The increased frequency of contamination of bodies of water such as rivers, harbors, ponds, lakes, oceans, and the like, by, for example, chemical spills, oil spills, or other contaminants, has increased the need for effective contamination containment barriers or booms. Such containment barriers or booms are utilized to separate the area of the liquid body having the contamination from adjacent areas of the liquid body. Various types of contamination control booms have heretofore been utilized to achieve this objective. For example, there are disclosed contamination control booms of various forms and configurations in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,295,755; 4,068,478; 3,798,911; 3,576,108; 3,686,869; 3,811,285; and 3,803,848.
However, in many applications, it has been found advantageous to admit liquid from the liquid body into the interior of the flotation chamber of a contamination control boom. Incorporation of a pump, or other removal means, allows the removal of liquid from the interior of the flotation chamber to some preselected location external the flotation chamber. Thus, if the contaminant, or a mixture of the contaminant and the liquid from the body of liquid is allowed to enter the flotation chamber, it may be pumped to allow, for example, recovery of the contaminant after removal from the interior of the float chamber of the boom.
Additionally, because of the length of booms often required to contain a contaminant within a particular area of the body of liquid, it is often desirable to have such booms flexible enough that they may be compactly stored, for example, axially as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,478, or as wound on a reel or drum, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,755.
In order to allow liquid from the body of liquid to enter into the float chamber of a contamination control or containment barrier or boom, it is necessary to provide sufficient buoyancy that the liquid entering the flotation chamber (and as utilized herein, the liquid entering the flotation chamber may be the liquid from the body of liquid, the contaminant, or a mixture of the contaminant and the liquid), does not completely fill the flotation chamber and sink the boom. Many of the booms heretofore utilized in the prior art, incorporating a flotation chamber, were of the type which, if liquid entered the flotation chamber, the entire flotation chamber would fill, and the boom, of course, would sink. Consequently, there has long been a need for a contamination control barrier or boom arrangement in which liquid from the body of liquid may be allowed to enter the boom, but the boom would still float and provide the functions for which it is intended.
In yet another application, it has been found desirable to provide a fire resistant contamination control boom. For example, when oil is the contaminant, it is often desired to contain the oil in a particular area of the body of liquid upon which the oil is floating, and burn the oil to remove the oil as a contaminant. Similarly, such applications also involve utilization of a boom to contain an oil spill in which the oil is accidentally burning. The flexible booms of the type mentioned in the above mentioned patents, are not suitable for such an application, in that the temperature associated with the burning oil would destroy the boom. Certain materials, however, which are flexible, have a sufficiently high refractory nature such that they will not be destroyed by the temperature of the burning oil. However, such materials are often somewhat porous and thus would allow liquid from the body of liquid to enter into the flotation chamber when such materials were utilized as the walls of the flotation chamber. Such applications, of course, therefore, require that flotation be provided to insure that the boom remains floating as a boom to provide the boom functions as well as to be resistant to the temperature associated with the burning contaminant.